How we test smartwatches at ZDNET in 2026

With superior options equivalent to voice assistants, crash detection, name and textual content assist, and lengthy battery lives, fashionable smartwatches are way over simply an adjunct. And due to highly effective sensors and in depth app suites, they’ve turn into one of the common health and fitness trackers, too.

How can we take a look at and consider these smartwatches at ZDNET? How effectively is the watch supported by a smartphone companion? What capabilities and options stand out for every smartwatch? This is the complete breakdown.

Additionally: The best smartwatches you can buy

In most situations, the smartwatches we consider right here on ZDNET are bought after being launched to the general public, so there is no such thing as a urgency in making an attempt to publish a overview primarily based on a brief interval with the watch. Watches additionally require at the very least a pair weeks of 24/7 put on to check battery life, well being and wellness monitoring, GPS positioning accuracy, coronary heart charge sensor reliability, and numerous design options.

We now have relationships with most smartwatch manufacturers, so we are able to ship questions concerning the watch as we consider it and search clarification on the {hardware}, software program, and different points. We additionally take a look at a handful of third-party purposes, however with 1000’s of apps obtainable on most of those watches, your private experiences will range from our testing.

Smartwatch efficiency additionally relies upon upon an individual’s physique geometry, the match of the band on the wrist, the precise smartphone that the watch connects with, mobile reception high quality (for linked fashions), and extra. We offer readers with our perspective from testing the watches with our large-size wrists and telephones.

Worth and battery life are components in our suggestions however are much less vital as a result of most smartwatches solely final for a day or two between charging, except you’re contemplating extra fitness-focused smartwatches which have fewer third-party apps and battery life measured in days or perhaps weeks. Most fashionable smartwatches additionally vary within the $300 to $500 vary so there is not a serious worth component to think about.

What makes a smartwatch ZDNET advisable? 

A smartwatch serves as a companion to a smartphone and barely stands alone. Since we have now excluded worth and battery life above, the idea for whether or not a smartwatch is advisable or not is set by 5 different components. Your desire for these 5 components may differ from ours, however we began carrying smartwatches greater than 20 years in the past (Fossil Wrist PDA powered by Palm OS) and have refined our testing and analysis processes.

Additionally: Best Garmin watches

The 5 components we consider, so as of significance, are core performance and efficiency, construct high quality and sturdiness, well being and wellness, purposes, and superior options. The superior options are points of the smartwatch that set it other than rivals and should goal particular kinds of customers. 

How we take a look at smartwatches in 2026

Core performance and efficiency

To justify occupying a spot in your wrist, a smartwatch has to offer core capabilities reliably. If the smartwatch creates any friction within the consumer expertise, it’s unlikely to be embraced as a each day wearable. In the beginning, a watch ought to clearly present you the time with a fast look. Smartwatches have developed over time with customized watch faces that match your outfit and/or your character so every watch can stand other than others with the identical mannequin. 

Some watches make the watch face much more succesful, with numerous issues or widgets displaying you glanceable data past the time and date. Watch faces with issues normally additionally assist responses to finger faucets, the place a show stuffed with superior metrics and traits will seem after your activation. Third-party apps usually add customized complication choices, so there are numerous methods to customise and optimize your watch face.

A method {that a} smartwatch distinguishes itself from an ordinary watch is that it serves as a distant in your cellphone and gives an accessible means to triage your key notifications in order that your cellphone can stay on the charger, in your pocket, or in your bag. The smartwatch allows you to look rapidly at notifications with out absolutely eradicating you out of your present exercise. Voice-to-text has additionally improved considerably over the previous few years, so you’ll be able to rapidly and simply reply to many notifications all out of your watch.

These core capabilities should additionally work reliably, with the time and notifications showing every time the consumer must see them. If a smartwatch gives inconsistent efficiency, it’ll seemingly find yourself on the market or in a drawer. We do not want wearables demanding our consideration except they’re completely in sync with the linked cellphone.

We join smartwatches to varied telephones, join them to mobile service, measure the consistency in receiving notifications, observe the reliability of launching issues, and maintain observe of inconsistent conduct after we consider every watch.

Construct high quality and sturdiness

Each smartwatch right now has a stage of water resistance that helps carrying your watch in most situations, though not all of them assist submergence in water for prolonged durations of time. The watch face is roofed by sturdy glass that’s resilient to scratching. The physique of most watches is constructed of polymer fiber, aluminum, titanium, or chrome steel, and buttons are constructed for urgent and/or rotating to navigate the consumer interface.

Additionally: Best waterproof smartwatches

Default watch bands come together with your authentic buy, however most smartwatches assist commonplace 20, 22, or 26 mm bands. Amazon has an virtually limitless choice of watch bands, so yow will discover a dependable band that may maintain the watch mounted in your wrist even throughout strenuous actions. 

We doc any display scratches that seem, put on the watches within the rain and through bodily actions, and take a look at out numerous bands as a part of our analysis. You’ll be able to try several options we like to use with our Apple Watch Ultra.

Well being and wellness

One of many largest enhancements in smartwatch expertise over the previous few years has been the combination of superior well being and wellness options that beforehand had been present in devoted well being units. A few of these devoted sports activities watches went the opposite manner and have embraced the smartphone by integrating notifications, third-party purposes, messaging, and extra in order that we now see the convergence of those applied sciences within the smartwatch.

Apple continues to aggressively transfer ahead with integrating superior well being and wellness within the Apple Watch and not too long ago demonstrated a number of new options coming quickly in watchOS 11 that may problem its rivals. Well being and wellness monitoring make excellent sense in a smartwatch as battery life improves and ecosystems are constructed that present sensible insights and steering to assist smartwatch customers enhance their well being and wellness. 

Google’s newest Fitbit Premium service with AI coaching takes issues to the following stage, due to the intelligence supplied by Gemini and essentially the most customizable coaching plan choices ever seen on a smartwatch. Samsung has additionally embraced AI, and gives a compelling customized teaching expertise with Samsung Well being. With the superior well being and wellness experiences supplied by each of those corporations, Apple’s primary Apple Well being expertise is in want of a serious overhaul.

Smartwatches are not solely utilized by informal athletes, however skilled athletes are utilizing them to assist enhance their efficiency as detailed sleep monitoring, restoration metrics, and efficiency traits are precisely supplied with a smartwatch that additionally serves as the primary cell system that’s picked up within the morning.

Additionally: The best Apple Watches

Well being and wellness testing is my favourite side of evaluating smartwatches because it helps encourage me to run, bike, hike, row, stroll, sleep, and take part in actions with the intention to take a look at the accuracy of the placement monitoring, the guts charge monitoring, and extra. I pay for a subscription and use the DC Rainmaker Analyzer to check knowledge that I seize with numerous smartwatches.

Purposes 

Within the early days of smartwatches, third-party purposes had been pretty restricted. At present, Google, Samsung, Apple, Garmin, and others have embraced builders by extending smartphone purposes to the watch type issue. Apple units the bar with the variety of purposes obtainable, the in depth options of the purposes, and the interface optimized for the small display, however Google’s focus once more on Put on OS has resulted in severe competitors for the house in your wrist.

Additionally: Best Android smartwatches

Google’s purposes have been revived with the main target of the partnership with Samsung on the Galaxy Watch platform, however there are nonetheless many gaps that turn into clear whenever you evaluate a Google Put on smartwatch to an Apple Watch.

After we take a look at smartwatches, we have now a core set of 10-15 purposes that work effectively on a smartwatch, and we take a look at out which watches these purposes work with and the way effectively these purposes work. At present, Google intently matches what is obtainable by Apple, however the depth of the performance is missing in lots of instances.

Superior options

This final issue is usually essentially the most attention-grabbing a part of my overview course of since it’s the place I discover what a smartwatch can do above and past the usual fare. We noticed that 2025 was the yr of satellite tv for pc assist on smartwatches, with Google, Apple, and Garmin offering connectivity to things in house with a various stage of communication assist. All three of them present satellite tv for pc SOS assist, so if you’re ever outdoors of mobile vary and need assistance, you’ll be able to provoke emergency companies.

Garmin set the bar with its improbable LED flashlight functionality that I exploit each single day. We now have seen others (Suunto and Amazfit) launch sports activities watches with LED flashlights, and I anticipate we could quickly see Apple, Samsung, and Google provide this key performance.

Apple’s Watch Extremely 3 routinely launches a cool submerged water interface whenever you take your watch into the pool or lake to train. Some Samsung fashions have a rotating bodily bezel the place you’ll be able to spin the dial across the watch bezel to rapidly scroll by lists.

Different widespread superior options embrace music controls, crash/incident detection and notification, navigation, hands-free voice help, and blood pressure monitoring (with Apple’s new Hypertension Detection feature, and on Samsung watches outdoors of the US). There are nonetheless many different doable options and capabilities to come back on future watches, so keep tuned as we proceed to find these superior options and look to the way forward for hologram wearables.

I exploit reviewer guides and even crack open the manuals to attempt to discover these superior options on numerous smartwatches. After spending time with the watches, I then additionally try opinions from others testing the watches to seek out superior options. It is usually useful to dive into the various ranges of settings in watches to find superior options. At present’s smartwatches are engineering marvels, and you may spend days and weeks diving into the entire particulars, capabilities, and choices discovered inside them.